1. Field
The present invention relates to a camera for shooting a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed and implemented in various ways a technique for removing particles adherent to a surface of an image pickup device of a digital camera and a surface of a transmitting member such as a low-pass filter placed in the optical path of the image pickup device (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3,727,903).
The camera of the Japanese Patent No. 3,727,903 has a cleaning function whereby an optical element (transmitting member) placed on an image pickup device is resonated by a vibration exciting means to shake off particles adherent to the optical element and remove them.
The camera having such a cleaning function, however, performs a removal operation for the particles regardless of the orientation of the camera. For this reason, in some cases the particles may not be effectively removed depending on the orientation of the camera.